←back to thread

235 points volemo | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source
Show context
miki123211 ◴[] No.43517478[source]
> Switch the language on foreign terms and names so that screen readers can pronounce them in the right voice.

Screen reader user here. Don't actually do this, this is bad advice.

Just like a lecturer won't suddenly switch to a German accent when saying words like "schadenfreude" or names like "Friedrich Nietzsche", neither should a screen reader. Having your voice constantly change under you for no apparent reason is distracting more than anything else.

What you should do this for are longer pieces of text in a foreign language, like a multi-paragraph piece of text to analyze in a foreign language textbook.

replies(5): >>43517532 #>>43517647 #>>43518226 #>>43518965 #>>43534553 #
TrayKnots ◴[] No.43517647[source]
Yea, I hate that. Words are pronounced differently in foreign languages. Do we say Moscow or Moskwa? Do we say ka-tana or ka-ta-na? If Freud is not spoken with the typical Gemran diphthong, then suddenly someone comes along and corrects you. I do speak German, I know how Freud is pronounced and I will pronounce it as it should be pronounced when speaking German, but when speaking English, it is Frood for me.

So, I am with you. We shouldn't learn the pronunciation of 200 different languages. If Kirchhoff's laws sound like Captain Kirk, who the fuck cares. Different languages pronounce stuff differently.

replies(3): >>43517927 #>>43518498 #>>43523254 #
currymj ◴[] No.43517927[source]
i agree with you in spirit (I pronounce Paris as Paris).

however I have never heard of someone pronouncing Freud as Frood, outside of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sobc2WhL16c

replies(3): >>43518011 #>>43518791 #>>43519762 #
gus_massa ◴[] No.43518791[source]
[Hi from Argentina!] For 'Euler", I keep switching randomly betwen

Eh-oo-leh-r that is how it should be read if it were an Spanish word.

Oh-ee-leh-r that is the proper German pronunciation

replies(1): >>43519476 #
1. aurizon ◴[] No.43519476[source]
And here I felt he added lubrication to machinery = Oiler and my friend Eugene who's mother called him Oygen does the same. Being from the UK, came to Canada in 1948, I spoke colloquial English in school, but correct London Cockney slang at home to family - on phone calls to friends, if I responded to family mid dialog, my friends would always ask who was that when my slang was over heard.